Most books about dowsing or dowsing teachers will usually tell you about how to ask good dowsing questions. That’s certainly what we’ve done.

But there’s not enough emphasis on why some dowsing questions are bad, or poor, or weak, or to be generally avoided. That’s what this is about.

Generally speaking, bad dowsing questions are too vague. They are often very short and use vague terms. But what we’re going to be looking at here is what exactly is wrong with them.

First, if ever anyone talks about the ‘highest good’ of something, it’s a bad question. Why? Because there is no way, ever, that you are going to know the outcome and there is nothing you can measure. But, far worse than that, is the fact that by referring to something you can never know about, you have given over your power to some unseen, unknown, unpredictable force or personality or being and left it up to it/them to decide the outcome.

That is not what dowsing is about. Dowsing is about empowerment and about helping you in life and guiding you through various problems and tricky decisions. But, by throwing in the term ‘highest good’, you’ve given all that up and left it to the whim of ‘whatever’ to decide for you. In that case, why bother dowsing at all? Just put the pendulum down and walk away.

Another bad question has the world ‘should’ in it. ‘Should I buy this?’ ‘Should I do this?’

The word should implies a moral judgment and, as such, is asking for some outside opinion to validate what you do. ‘Should I marry so-and-so?’ Why would you ask that sort of question? What does it mean if it’s either ‘yes’ or ‘no’? What information does that give you? None! You have no idea of the pros or cons of the answer. If someone comes to you and asks, ‘Should I do so-and-so?’, your answer will (hopefully) contain reasons for your decision. But, in dowsing, you don’t get those reasons. And the reasons behind the answer might be relevant to you or not. Those reasons will help you make up your mind to accept the answer or not. But, in dowsing, you don’t get that chance to weight the arguments, because you already decided to bypass them.

Don’t ask anything about ‘should’!

There’s another bad question which begins with ‘May I? Can I? Should I?’ OK, so this is not strictly about a dowsing question, but about what some people say you should do (notice the ‘should’ there?) before dowsing. Apparently, it’s meant to clear up any issues about what you’re proposing to dowse about. Except it doesn’t. It’s dowsing about whether to dowse or not. Which is somewhat circular. Who are you asking? And why should they be trusted?
(I’ve written a lot more about it here giving more details why I think it’s a habit you should avoid.)
If you don’t have the moral compass to decide whether it is ethical to dowse, or doubt you are competent enough to dowse, then don’t dowse! Asking that three part question is not going to make things happy for you. Most people will get the answer they want anyway, and then hide behind the statement that they asked permission first.

There are other types of bad questions, but those are the main types to avoid.

Have you other examples of bad dowsing questions? Or do you disagree with the examples here? Let us know in the comments section below.